Dillon Levenque

Baby Che, shouting "Viva PRIMS!"

I wish you'd been there to advise my father when he decided the first instrument I should learn to play (at eight years old) was the violin. On the other hand, never mind: he'd probably heard that already and picked it for that reason. For a punk kid I was, I guess, pretty good. At the age of 10 I soloed for a Luther Burbank Elementary School assembly, a fact of which I was then and still remain inordinately proud. I haven't played it since high school; these days I just fiddle around ;-) on the guitar. I could not possibly agree more with your last sentence.

I don't know how accurate that ratio is, Pamela, but for sure it's quite close: the ones who get it almost certainly do not get into the double digits. Frankly, I can't see how that can change. Those of us who love and/or have loved this place do so because of what it is. We 'get it'; it speaks to us of imagination and boundless possibilities. There was a time in almost everyone's life when that feeling was a constant. For me, it was the time between when I was three or four and the time I was seven, probably. There's a stanza in a song we'll all be hearing over and over in the weeks to come, but I still like the song: I have a dim but consistent recollection of getting out of bed once on Christmas Eve after the lights were out, and sneaking to the window to watch the sky. You know. Just in case. "And every mother's child is gonna try To see if reindeer really know how to fly" I believe SL's true lure is that it lets us go back to that mode of thinking. And that's okay. A very good friend of mine has said (more than once, but then practically everything we've ever said to each other we've said more than once) that while being childish is a bad thing in an adult, there is nothing at all wrong with being childlike now and then.

Happy Birthday, and I (along with most others on this forum) am glad you stuck around for a full year—that means you've moved far along the learning curve. You've reached the point where something you hadn't expected happens a few times a day, rather than second by second. Enjoy the journey. And watch yourself in those Adult clubs, kiddo. Mos Eisley's got nuthin' on us. ;-)

and thus never learned of

If it's beer with coffee ye be wantin', try this pirate's favorite—porter with coffee and vanilla.

execute the infamous Plan B

I couldn't resist. :-) Actually, I do get your point although I don't think that's anything new; I started in 2008 and there were a large number of transgender-themed places, almost all of which had if not a sexual purpose for existing, a far higher amount of sexual activity (arrangements, assignations, etc.) than SL in general. Which is pretty high to begin with. I think one reason so many of us went there at first (try not to laugh, people. I know what you're thinking!) was a comfort factor. We'd be in one of 'our' places. A lot of us came to realize that most in SL are far less concerned with what people look like and/or do than are people in real life. And conversely, much more interested in what they are like. Who they are. I found that out early (this forum helped but I'd been out and about for a year inworld by then). You gotta admit I got style, though. ;-) ETA: Perhaps that real world attitude is changing, more quickly in some places than others. Last night in the US state of Virginia a transgender woman defeated a 13-term incumbent who referred to himself as the state's "chief homophobe" (not kidding) for a seat in the state's assembly (House of Delegates).

I beg your pardon?

I love Joe Friday; he was such a perfect subject for parody. Stan Freberg did at least one, possibly more. I even did one in a letter to a girl, once. I can't recall the whole story but it had to do with a building of historical interest that I used to visit and I'd taken her their once when we were still in high school. Joe's partner (Bill?) was commenting on the footprint of the building and said something like, "That thing must be about 5000 square feet, Joe." "That's about the size of it." I was kinda proud of that one. :-)

Buzzing the Gondola on Maddy's super duper airplane.

Tari, I agree with all of that including looking at the (hopelessly befuddled) Destination Guide. I do believe that's how I long ago discovered The Forgotten City. Sadly, it has gone but it was far and away the most fascinating place I've ever been. I am pretty sure it was built pre-mesh, but it was SO well done. I showed it to Maddy and she rented a house there, stayed until it closed. My first visit:

Thanks for that and I hope you don't mind if I nitpick. The Shoutcast formula is actually http://domain name:port. Things that end in .com (or .net, .tv, etc.) are domains. Addresses are all numbers, like 172.68.205.80 (or even more if it's v6). The addresses are how computers actually find each other on networks.

By chance I saw this, and by going back to the necropost I saw that the post above it, the last post made before the thread died in May of 2013, was Maddy replying to me. in fact, our derail of the thread takes up a quarter of the last page. I enjoyed re-reading the conversation. :-) So, Maddy and I killed a thread! Makes me proud. We once got a thread locked (okay, might have been unintentional). One or the other of our two most ardent trolls just would not quit and instead of the usual ignore, we either carried on a separate convo concerning him or teased him directly. I can't recall the details. In any case the troll escalated, as trolls do, and eventually got so unpleasant a mod locked the thread. I was elsewhere when the lock happened. When I logged back into the Forums later I had a PM from Maddy saying that we'd gotten a thread locked. She Rawr'd.

There's at least one trait at which you both excel, Maddy/Maddie: y'all sure do know how to lounge.

I don't recall knowing that this started as a song. My mother (who in her single days danced to the Glen Miller Orchestra—live—both around Los Angeles and on Catalina Island) used to tell me the first line as a sort of bedtime story when I was little. She didn't put it to music; she just recited it. "Last night I saw upon the stair a little man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. Oh, how I wish he'd go away." It made an impression on me; I never forgot it. I told it to the youngest when he was still at bedtime story age. After that he used to ask for it. "Can you tell me about the little man again?" I wonder if he'll use it himself when the time comes. It would be pretty cool to have a little nonsense ditty go through three generations. :-)

That pic shows as 6 hours ago, or about 9:30 SLT. At about 5:00 PM SLT I went online to try on costumes, all my faves being pre-mesh (I have been inworld at times, but not for Halloween in a couple of years, maybe more. They fly by, ya know)? While I was doing that Naz came online. She IM'd me with simply, "Dillon Levenque." I figured I was in for a scolding but I admitted it was myself. She went easy on me, though. We got caught up a little until I had to log out to fix part of dinner. I always get called for fried eggs and the better half was fixing breakfast for her dinner, not unusual on weekends. I was back on the PC about 6:00 or 6:15 fitting the oufit and trying to decide whether to go to the Hangout party or wait an hour. I knew I'd have two parties to go to; the Hangout's plus the one Naz was throwing during her regular Saturday night performance at the Atomic Palace. Yes, that was a plug. Deal with it. And then I fell asleep. Right there in my comfy swivel chair. When I awoke it was almost 11:00 PM SLT. I scooted straight to the Hangout; there was nobody there. Why would there be? Naz was still online; she said her party was a blast and LOL'd my nap. I did take a pic just to prove I was there. And Maddy's costume? That's a hairball. Her way of flirting with kitties. I've got my eye on you, Clover Jinx.

It was 94 here yesterday which might not be a record; 100 the day before, which was. Finally yesterday in mid-afternoon the wind shifted back around to the usual WNW off the Pacific and we cooled off considerably within the space of a couple of hours, to the high 70's. Supposed to be about 85 today which is still 15-20 degrees above normal but at least it's livable (virtually nobody around here has air-conditioning at home).

In my first couple of months here I somehow lucked into having a mentor (the first of three I'd eventually know in my first year). As it happens she was a stripper and she explained a lot about how that works in SL. One day she took me to a store that sold dance poles, among other things. Big store, lots of poles to demo. While we were looking, a woman who was demo-ing a pole nearby started emoting. Of course I had no idea what emoting was, so I said, "Wow, somebody is having a really good time in her imagination". Joana explained that it was emoting and suggested I try it. I made one attempt and then stopped and said, "I can't do this! It feels like I'm writing some crappy romance novel.", which cracked her up. Just talk right straight at people. If the antisocial in your title refers to you, that will be challenging but far more beneficial to you. You'd be surprised how just saying hello to guys who walk in can start conversations and if he asks you a question that means you have to answer. Next thing you know you'll be having a conversation. Or, you can emote. The woman at the store mentioned she put all her emotes on a notecard for easy reference. Seriously. "Hello, Studly Dudley and welcome to the Skindazzle Club. I shall now read from a prepared text." BTW, there actually is plenty to do in SL that does not require a lot of social time, such as building, scripting, terraforming and about a zillion others. However, I did look at your flickr and that bod is definitely worth showing off. Go for it. It's Second Life, what can it hurt to try?

If you'll go along with replacing "creepy" with "startling"......Maddy. ps: If she replies to this, I'm betting it's with "Beams!". See what I mean?

"'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy!"

Hoo!

Funny you should point that out. There are only a couple of people who call me "Dilly", but it does happen. At the time I titled the flickr post that included that pic, all I knew consciously was that the phrase meant something. Maddy posted a comment; here is my response: The subconscious is a funny thing. That title just jumped out while I was looking at the colors. I knew I'd heard the phrase and I knew it was a song, but that recollection came after I'd written it down. Much, much later I started remembering about the song and this morning I thought, "Wasn't there like a 'dilly dilly' line in there somewhere?". I wonder how much that had to do with the choice. I think we had a Burl Ives album with that on it, by the way, but I like the one you attached too. :-) Don't know whether she still does (my bad; not inworld) but Naz used to do a Garage Band set now and then. Among a whole bunch of great stuff there was this one. I'm only playing it for fun and because Maddy might get a grin out of it.....it's been stored in the arsenal for a rather long time. You can actually find the entire actual recording (this one's mercifully cut short) on YouTube if you're a masochist. I've always liked this video version, though. Doesn't the piano player look like she could possibly be transgender? Of all the people there I like the thumbs-up girl in the white dress the best; she is just flat out having a good time. Also, the bass player's chin thrusts are world class.

:-D. For Christmas of (I think) 2009, a forum member decided to start a Secret Santa program. If you joined she'd randomly match your name with someone for whom you would be Santa and assign a different person to be your Santa. There was a limit on how much we could spend (even for creators: they had to contribute stuff that was under the limit in their shops). On joining up we were supposed to say what sort of things we liked or were interested in, as a hint to our Santas. I was assigned to be Santa for the person on the forum who had interested me the most right from the time I first started lurking, and who continued to interest me the most once I started actually posting. Back in those days the three or four most recent posts to the Forum showed on your dashboard when you first logged in, so people would see a post that interested them and go look at the Forum (and maybe stick around). CAN YOU HEAR ME, LINDEN LAB? *cough*. Anyway, I got the one person I'd have picked if I'd had the chance. You Know Who up there. Her "suggestion comment" was "I like purple!". Armed with that and having seen a few pics of her in the forum I went shopping. Got slacks and a sweater (might have been an outfit). There was a matching fedora in there too 'cause I'd seen she was partial to 'em. Prepare your eyes for a prim/sculpty blast from the past. She wasn't wearing the hat that night. That's me in the blue jeans, btw. ps: This pic even has a title: Lavender Blue.

That really sounds familiar. I had a bunch of pics, too—I know for sure I had one of us on the Small World ride—but somehow I can't find them anymore. Deletion disease, probably.